Plea Bargaining Controversy in Society

Plea Bargaining Controversy in Society

Councilman Dennis Gallagher was accused of raping and assaulting a Queens woman. The alleged event took place on July 8, 2007. Although Councilman Gallagher said it was consensual sex, the plaintiff says otherwise. When it was brought to trail by a grand-jury preceding the judge claimed the defense team had unfairly presented their case to the grand jury. About a month from the ruling, Councilman Gallagher was offered a plea deal reducing the charges brought against him as well as future happenings. The woman, the victim in the case was upset by the offering and has said that she will make sure Gallagher gets indicted.

Councilman Gallagher was accused of having raped a woman whom he had a meeting with last July. One side says the sex was consensual and the other says it wasn’t and that he raped her. When the case was dismissed by the judge because of unfair and irrelevant questions, the Councilman was offered a plea bargain. Gallagher was first offered a plea bargain that would keep him out of jail but he would have to admit being guilty of committing the above accusations. He denied that offer and was made another.

As mentioned in the textbook; “The American System of Criminal Justice”, by George F. Cole, Plea-bargaining is negotiating a settlement between the prosecutor and the defense attorney, that would exchange a guilty plea for a lighter sentence.. Generally if the prosecutor is willing to lower the sentence, the defense will accept and plea guilty to the crime he or she was accused of. Roughly thirty-five years ago, plea-bargaining was not discussed outside of the courtroom. It was a “secret” of the court and done behind closed doors. Now, people know what plea-bargaining is, and is now a very controversial subject in society. There are positives and negative aspects of plea-bargaining in the case of Councilman Gallagher.

The first advantage of plea-bargaining is that the process makes the amount of cases easier to deal with for the courts systems. If offering a deal to councilman Gallagher so he will plea guilty sooner rather than later speeds up the court process. The courts will be able to handle more cases in a timely manner. It helps the right to a speedy trial aspect. It saves much time of continuing a long trial, which takes a lot of time in the courts systems. It would also decrease how many people are being held in jail awaiting their trial, which would help the over crowding of jails.

The second advantage is that Councilman Gallagher, if actually guilty, will plea guilty and receive some sort of punishment for the crime committed. If he continues the trail, he might be acquitted of the charges due to laws and evidence in the trial process. Some evidence is not accepted in the trial courts, and Gallagher will not be deemed guilty and won’t receive any punishment. This would allow him to continue to be in the community and continue to harm others. This would endanger society greatly.

The third advantage of plea bargaining, which would be an advantage to the Councilman Gallagher, is that he would get a lighter punishment and in some cases get to go home, instead of continuing the trial and getting a more sever punishment, such as imprisonment. This is a great advantage to Councilman Gallagher.

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